His Distraction

by Tanya Gallagher

  “It’s time to feed her again, sweetheart,” a nurse interrupted, brushing past Jeremy, brisk and efficient.

  “Of course,” Maya answered.

  He handed Emilia back to her mother. “I’ll take that as my cue to leave.” He promised Maya another visit soon, and Ramon walked him back to the hospital’s front lobby.

  “Everything come together at work this week?” Ramon asked. “Sorry I had to jet off.”

  “Don’t you even.”

  He didn’t mention the way he’d had to hire Vanessa back after Ramon left. He didn’t want Ramon to feel bad about it, nor did he need to hear the inevitable “I told you so,” that was sure to come. Truthfully, Jeremy hadn’t gotten around to the problem of the second plane ticket, but Vanessa was back now. And Amy had asked for her by name.

  He grinned at the realization. If he asked Vanessa to fly to LA, she would fight him on it, that was for sure. But the way this whole arrangement worked, they each took a little from each other. A trade for a trade for a trade.

  He smiled at his best friend, his secret safe in his back pocket for now. “Things are great. I’ve got everything under control.” He hoped to god it was true.

  Chapter 15

  Vanessa lifted her gaze from the circle of girls seated on the grass in front of her as a motion behind their heads caught her eye. She squinted in the afternoon sunlight and froze, momentarily stunned.

  Sonofabitch. Despite the fact that she’d both emailed and texted Jeremy the address for today’s GROW meeting, she hadn’t actually believed he would come.

  And yet here he was, apparently, striding across the track to her.

  Seattle had had a stretch of dry days, and the track kicked up a cloud of dust in his wake. The effect was like in those action movies set in the desert, with heat rippling off the ground: the view was distorted until the hero got up close, but there was no doubt that it was Jeremy. And there was no doubt that this had all been a mistake.

  Jeremy was wearing spandex and Vanessa was wearing spandex, and this whole idea was very, very dumb. Or irresponsible, at best. Because ten thirteen-year-old girls looked up at her for guidance, and all she could do was gape.

  Holy shit. This was way too intimate. On the track Jeremy wasn’t her boss—he could have been anyone. His suit and tie no longer shielded his body, and when she looked at him in his workout clothes, he looked young. And very, very sexy.

  She drank in the sight of him. She’d been dying of thirst her whole life, and she hadn’t even known. She wanted to stare at him until she was sated, until she’d wrung every drop from this view.

  Jeremy’s tight shirt clung to each ripped muscle of his body, from his flat abs to his broad shoulders. With his strong arms exposed he looked completely capable of up-against-the-wall sex, like holding her up wouldn’t even make him break a sweat. His arms were a total turn-on, and she pressed her thighs together and squirmed uncomfortably as he strode toward her.

  Jeremy caught her eye and grinned. For as much as she was checking him out, he was doing the same to her. His eyes traveled the length of her body, making a pass over her running shorts and tank top. Thank god she’d worn her Victoria’s Secret sports bra instead of one of her old, ratty ones that gave her a uniboob.

  “Sorry I’m late, ladies. I had a little car trouble.”

  She glanced toward the parking lot to find the Jaguar gleaming in the bright afternoon, sunlight winking off its curves.

  He was not subtle, was he?

  She snapped her attention back to the girls. “It looks like Mr. Glass will be joining us today after all.”

  “Jeremy,” he corrected as he stepped onto the grassy island at the center of the track.

  He walked closer to her, leaning forward to whisper in her ear. “Don’t look so surprised to see me.” Maybe she’d misjudged him after all.

  She wanted to lean into the spicy scent of him but also pull away. It was so damn hard to know which way was up with him, which made it hard to know how she felt about him. Did she want to fuck him? Or fight him? Probably all of the above. Because in those clothes…

  Gah.

  Jeremy waved for Vanessa to continue. “Please don’t let me interrupt.”

  Too late.

  She needed a minute to think so instead of following the lesson plan that she couldn’t, for the life of her, seem to recall, she divided the girls into two groups. She handed the first girl in each group a baton and started them on a relay race. One lap of the track per girl. That should take up some time.

  She tried not to startle as Jeremy’s voice brushed against her ear again. “Are you going to give them some speech about how each member of the team is important?”

  He was so warm next to her, his skin tan and inviting. For someone she’d seen almost exclusively indoors, he had a glow that suggested he spent more time outside than she did.

  “Yeah.” She nodded, twisting a strand of hair behind her ear. “Something like that.”

  “Mind if I take a stab at it?”

  “Be my guest.” Let’s see just what he could do.

  “Do you really believe what you said?” Vanessa asked as she hauled a bag of gear into the supply shed between the track and the parking lot. She and Jeremy had wrapped the GROW session ten minutes ago, and though the girls were gone, the two of them had stayed late to clean up.

  Jeremy raised an eyebrow. “About what?”

  “That confidence is a muscle.”

  She’d brought Jeremy into volunteering to make him squirm, to make him see there was more to life than just cutting checks to get rid of a problem. But, hell, now she was the one squirming. Because as the hour had unfolded, she had to admit he was undeniably good at this whole thing. Jeremy had given the teamwork speech and then did one better, giving the girls a talk about how confidence is a muscle. Coming from a man who had more muscles than was really fair, they’d hung on every word.

  Traitors.

  Jeremy considered her question and nodded. “I do believe it. Tenacity isn’t built overnight.”

  “Is that a lesson you’ve learned firsthand?”

  Jeremy rubbed a hand over the back of his head, and for the first time, he seemed young and almost shy. Vulnerability was a good look for him. Still sexy, but human. “Yeah.” His voice was tinged with sincerity, and without the buffer of girls between them, everything felt more intimate, more unstable. Jeremy’s walls were down again, and his charm could be so appealing. “I’ve had to justify every move I made since the moment my parents brought me home from the hospital. I wasn’t so good at it when I was still in diapers. But I’ve picked it up over the years.”

  Oh.

  How…sad.

  Vanessa may not have seen eye to eye with her mom, but things hadn’t always been this way. She knew what it was like to have her mother care, which made it hard to deal with her disappointment now. But to never have that love to begin with? Her heart ached.

  She wanted to reach for Jeremy and say something comforting. But before she could open her mouth, the moment dissolved.

  Jeremy shrugged on a smile like he saw her pity coming and refused to let it in. He held out a baton to her. “Anyway, if it was easy to be this awesome, everyone would do it.”

  There was the arrogant Jeremy she knew. Vanessa rolled her eyes and grabbed the baton. “So what’s the trick? Fake it till you make it?”

  “Actually, that’s not far off.”

  “Hopefully that’s not also true when it comes to orgasms.”

  Oh lord.

  What had she just said?

  “Sorry.” She shook her head. “That was totally unprofessional.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Faked orgasms would be a tragedy.” Jeremy studied her face, and her cheeks heated. Why did it have to feel so good to have his eyes on her? It was like standing naked in front of him, fully dressed. “Anyway, it’s okay to talk about sex. If people talked about it instead of having it be taboo, there would be far less judgment and negat
ivity.”

  Had he received his own judgment for going into this business? Vanessa hd assumed that being a sex toy mogul was a good thing. But maybe he’d had to work harder for it than she’d thought.

  “Jeremy Glass, I do believe you’ve just found the answer to world peace.”

  “Being more vocal about sex?”

  “Well, that.” She smiled. “And having more good sex in general.”

  He laughed and his whole face softened. “Sounds like I’m in the right industry.”

  “You can add your Nobel Peace Prize to the display case in the office.” Vanessa placed the last of the gear on the shelf and walked toward the door.

  Jeremy fell into step beside her. “But would I put my prize in front of the AVN Awards or behind them?”

  She smiled. “Definitely in front. With a spotlight pointed right at it.” She pulled the door shut and locked it before swinging her purse onto her shoulder. When she turned back to Jeremy, his eyes were this steady, friendly presence. “So.”

  “So.”

  She dug the toe of her sneaker into the ground. “See you in the office?”

  Jeremy nodded, his jaw flexing. She pulled her Orca card from her purse and was about to turn away when his voice caught her. “Hey, outside of work can we stay like this?”

  The low rumble of it felt like a plea, and something in her stomach dropped. The request was smooth, a subtle way of calling out the way things between them had been so rocky at the start. But he was right. Things were so much better like this. It felt nice to laugh with him—like they were sharing an inside joke. Like they were on the same team. Maybe this whole volunteering thing wasn’t such a bad idea.

  She took an unsteady breath. “Like what?” She needed to toss this back in Jeremy’s court. Because what the hell was the word for this thing between them? This push-and-pull uncertainty? She raised an eyebrow. “Friends?”

  He laughed. “Sure. Friends.”

  She didn’t quite believe that was all he wanted, but no matter how tempting it was to take this further, there couldn’t be more. He was her boss. She needed to hold up her end of the deal so she could get the job she really wanted.

  “Okay,” she said, her fingers on the strap of her purse. “Friends.”

  Chapter 16

  It turned out it wasn’t so easy to be just friends with the woman you would kill to be inside of. Each day since the GROW meeting Jeremy had wondered if he’d shot himself in the foot by making that request. Because—damn—if he had the opportunity, he sure as hell would fuck her. Did saying they were just friends take that possibility off the table? He hoped not.

  At least that tiny word dropped between them had gotten them closer to level ground. Vanessa liked him, which was better than hating him. But it still wasn’t everything he wanted.

  Jeremy ambled out of his office toward the break room, an empty coffee mug in hand. But before he ever made it down the hall, the sight of Vanessa in front of the display case made him change direction.

  He stepped next to her, so close that if she sneezed she’d bump into him. But she didn’t sneeze. She leaned.

  It was a subtle thing, just a brush against his shoulder, the silky material of her blouse sliding over his pressed button-down shirt. The forbidden touch was hotter than he would have imagined that touching with clothes on could be.

  Vanessa turned her neck to grin up at him. “Morning.” Her eyes sparkled as they held his, so intoxicatingly blue.

  “Something of interest in that case?”

  The top shelf of the display case held a handful of trophies, while the middle and bottom shelves housed some of the affiliated prize-winning products. Jeremy was proud of those awards, every single one of them earned. Why not show them off?

  Vanessa tapped a finger against her pink lips, then pointed at the display. “I was thinking your Peace Prize could go right there.”

  “How forward-thinking of you.”

  “You know me. Just a regular go-getter.”

  He had to laugh because she was. She was so sweet, so good. And despite the fact that every now and then he’d catch her staring at him when she thought he wasn’t looking, she was more focused than he’d been so far. She was really fucking good at this job.

  Ramon was totally going to have an “I told you so” moment if he let it slip when they saw each other next.

  He had to remind himself of the whole point of this truce he and Vanessa had arrived at: to not get distracted from positioning X Enterprises to sell, to not take action on his feelings. But for a man who’d dominated the business world by taking action, maybe it was a losing battle.

  “Are we still on for Wednesday?” he asked. He knew Vanessa hadn’t expected him to show up for the GROW meeting last week, and he loved the way she’d looked at him out on the track—surprised, sure, but also pleased. He wanted to continue surprising her, to prove he wasn’t the kind of man she’d originally thought he was. He wanted to be better for her. To be more.

  Vanessa’s eyes lit up as she studied him now, and she gave a mock gasp. “Don’t tell me you’re actually eager to go back and volunteer again, Mr. Can I Make a Charitable Contribution.”

  It was Monday, and over the weekend he had missed Vanessa’s smart mouth—seeing it and hearing it. Even if she was currently reminding him of his less honorable moments.

  He grinned at Vanessa now. “There were definite benefits to volunteering.”

  She nodded and her hair swirled around her shoulders, wafting the sweet scent of her shampoo through the office. “Well, the girls loved you.” She peered up at him through those long lashes. “How did you know just what to say to them?”

  He shrugged. “I make it a point to learn something every day, whether that means watching a TED talk while I lift weights or listening to a podcast on my commute. When you don’t have the constraints of a traditional classroom setting, you can actually choose the things you want to learn about.”

  “And you can tailor the knowledge you find the problem you’re working on.”

  He smiled at her. She got it. “Exactly. And inevitably for me, some of those talks were mindset-related. Handy for coaching both employees and pre-teens, apparently. After the first hundred or so speeches, you pick up some tricks.”

  Vanessa cocked her head and dropped her hands to her hips. “That may be so, but there’s more to it than that.”

  “What can I say? I’m good with people.”

  Vanessa rolled her eyes but smiled. God, he loved this. Teasing her, breaking down these barriers that separated them. He knew most of the walls between them were of his own making, but it was freeing to relax a little with her. Every time in his past when the world had tried to stop him, it had felt like a challenge—like something he had to overcome. But proving Vanessa wrong about him didn’t feel quite the same. This, at least, was fun.

  “Whatever you say, Glass. Anyway, yes. We’re on for—” She broke off as Sean rounded the corner, humming Something Just Like This by The Chainsmokers.

  It could have been awkward, but it wasn’t. Vanessa kept her lips sealed as a pretty blush spread across her cheeks, but somehow that silence transformed their arrangement into this shared secret. No one else knew that Jeremy was volunteering in exchange for Vanessa’s help with Yessir. No one else knew there was more to them than coworkers. And it felt kind of nice. Them against the world, sort of.

  The two of them watched Sean amble down the hall, smiling at his back. Sean sang, asking how much a person would risk, and the song lyrics echoed in Jeremy’s head. He answered silently—he’d risk almost everything for Vanessa. Maybe more.

  How had that happened? She had somehow become his kryptonite, whether or not she knew it yet.

  Vanessa blew out a breath as Sean turned down the next hallway. “Sorry. Didn’t know if you wanted to announce your extracurriculars.”

  He had never been one for team sports, but if this is what extracurricular activities looked like, then sign him up. He sh
oved his hands in his pockets. “No, that’s fine. So same time, same place?”

  “Yep.” She smiled again. “Wednesday.”

  It was kind of a shame he had to wait another two days to get Vanessa alone again. But it would be worth it—seeing her in Spandex had definitely panned out the first time around. Yeah, he was more than a little eager for round two.

  Chapter 17

  Jeremy didn’t show. Vanessa had waited an extra fifteen minutes past the GROW meeting’s start time, trying to give the man the benefit of the doubt. Maybe traffic was bad, or he’d had “car trouble” with his way too expensive Jag again. But at minute twelve without even so much as an apology text from Jeremy, she’d had to admit she was wrong.

  She rolled her eyes and directed her girls in a warmup exercise, glaring at the entrance to the track as if staring for long enough could manifest the vexing man. No luck.

  Who the hell bailed on a group of underprivileged kids? Seriously. Although if she had to admit it, bringing him here again was probably a bad idea anyway. No woman between eleven and eighty was immune to Jeremy’s charms, her girls included. She’d seen the way they hung on every word he said last week, smiling like he could do no wrong. His face alone could pull off the ruse, but when you added the low, confident timbre of his voice? He’d be able to sweet talk a snake. A Parslemouth, just like Harry Potter. And her girls deserved someone who would do the right thing without fail, not just when it suited him.

  Why did he have to be so damn confusing? Vanessa had let her guard down around him—thought things were solid, if not good. She remembered the way Jeremy had smiled at her in the parking lot last week, his muscles flexing just beneath the thin fabric of his shirt, the way they’d reached a truce.

  Friends, her ass.

  Friends did not want to hate-fuck other friends. And that’s exactly what she wanted to do to him.